t-shell crabs.

"'Let those go for course the first;
Let the second be
Shrimps and oysters till I burst,
Thirteen quarts of tea.
Then a dozen sugared hams,
One small cabbage head,
Ninety dozen pinky clams,
Sixty loaves of bread.

"'Seven quarts of French canned pease,
And a pound or two
Of your Gorgonzola cheese
For my lunch will do."
Then the waiter standing by
In the usual way
Asked him: 'Won't you also try
Our hot mince today?'"

"I don't want to interrupt," said Tom, "but it seems to me that man must
have been awful rich."

"No, he wasn't," returned Lefty. "He was going to eat the dinner, you
know, and then die without paying for it. He wasn't a very good man."

[Illustration: "AND THEN DIE WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT."]

"No," remarked the story-teller. "But he was a very hungry man, in which
respect he was just like the Giant I am trying to tell you about. And my,
how the Giant roared with glee when he caught sight of Ebenezer.

"'Good!' he cried, 'that's just what I wanted for my lunch. A nice fat
boy.'

"Then he reached down," said the Righthandiron, "and grabbed Ebenezer by
the arm, and was about to eat him just as he would a piece of asparagus,
when Lefty here cried out:

"'Avast there, Skihigh! That isn't a nice fat boy. That is only a
miserable Weasel.'

"'Pah!' said Skihigh, with a face such as you put on when you take a
horrid tasting medicine. 'Pah! I can't eat Weasels.'

"And with that he put Ebenezer down on the road again and was about to
walk along about his business when what did that foolish little Ebenezer
do but up and deny that he was a Weasel!

"'I'm not a Weasel,' he yelled. 'And I am a boy--and a fine boy at that!'

"Skihigh stopped short, whirled about and rushed back to where Ebenezer
was standing.

"'What's that you say?' he said eagerly.

"'I say I am not a Weasel, but a fine fat boy,' said the vainglorious
Ebenezer stoutly.

"'Then my friends, the Andirons have deceived me, have they?' roared the
Giant.

"'Yes,' replied Ebenezer. 'But I can't stand being called a Weasel.'

[ILLUSTRATION: "JUST WHAT I WANTED FOR MY LUNCH."]

"With that," said the Righthandiron, "Skihigh clapped Ebenezer into his
market basket and then turned on Lefty and me. Lefty managed to get away,
but I was caught."

"What did he do to you?" asked Tom, trembling with excitement.

"He tried to bite my head off,"